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A two-year English teaching position in Hakodate Japan is now available at my former employer, Daibundo Gaigo School. I worked at Daibundo from ‘99 to ‘01 while studying Japanese dance, shamisen, and practicing taiko. I am helping Daibundo interview applicants.

While working at Daibundo I was able to study Japanese dance and shamisen. I spent a lot of my time practicing taiko and turntable.  Living in Japan was stressful at times but the Daibundo teachers, staff, and students were a really supportive group.  I highly recommend this position as a way to get to Japan!

Dance lessons in Hakodate

At home in Hakodate, scratching

If you’d like more information, please contact me by Mar 24, 2009. My email address is kris at OnEnsemble dot org and my cell phone number is 310-350-8825.

Position starts mid August, 2009
Monthly salary: 250,000 yen (about $2500/mo)
25 hours per week teaching, time between classes is free
Teach conversation classes for adults, children’s classes, and university classes
Provide occasional coaching and proofreading services to children and adults
Furnished apartment provided at rent of 39,000 yen ($400)

Daibundo School website

City of Hakodate website

We are very pleased to announce that On Ensemble will be teaching the 2009 Summer Taiko Institute!  This 3-day taiko intensive will take place in Los Angeles on August 3-5, immediately prior to the 2009 Taiko Conference.

Applications are due Friday, April 10, 2009.

We’re pulling out all the stops to make this Summer Taiko Institute (STI) jam-packed with goodness!..

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Patrick Graham’s new album RHEO is now available on CDBaby.  Patrick is a frequent On Ensemble collaborator and he has had a huge impact on our music.  Working with Patrick really inspired us to expand our range of frequencies and timbres and we’ve learned a lot from his thoughtful nuanced approach to music and percussion.  RHEO features collaborations with Ben Grossman, Debashis Sinha, Kaoru Watanabe, Nicholas Williams and On Ensemble on the last track of the album “…Strkes 13”.

I’ve personally been listening to RHEO a lot recently and it has quickly become one of my new favorite albums.  Patrick really put together a great CD and I’d highly recommend it to On Ensemble fans!

I’m surviving the TAIKOPROJECT tour!  Currently we’re in Stamford, CT.  So far we’ve had a school show in North Haven, CT, two school shows in Manhattan, a workshop and concert in Stony Brook, NY, a series of workshops and a concert in Philadelphia, PA, and a concert and workshop here in Stamford.  I’m exhausted, but I’m amongst good company.  The TP cast has been in good spirits even during rough stretches of the tour.  Gotta keep your spirits up on tour… otherwise you will be miserable!  We have to take care of each other.

We got to have some fun days too.  We went to Joe’s Shanghai Restaurant in Manhattan two times already.  They have the best soup dumplings ever.  So good!  Here’s a pic of us (Courtney’s taking the picture) on the southern tip of Manhattan.  The Statue of Liberty was too tiny for a camera to pick up in the distance.  It was really cold that day, but got to eat good ramen at Ippudo (Jason’s suggestion) which warmed us up.  We also got to see Bryan’s brother (Wynn) perform with his awesome group, happyfunsmile.  Good times…

Tomorrow is a relaxing day.  We’re gonna do some shopping, maybe see a movie, and then cook for our hosts, Sandra and Dave.  Then on to Pomona, NJ for our first (re)generation show of the tour.  Byron, Darren, John, and Scott fly join us for the 2nd leg of the tour.

I went to see Pharoah Sanders with my brother-in-law at the Jazz Bakery tonight and it was phenomenal.  There are few things better than listening to a wise Jazz sage like Pharoah Sanders.  He speaks the truth with his saxophone.  There is wisdom, beauty and passion in every  note, there are life lessons in every phrase and a philosophy of life in every song.

This weekend some of my favorite musicians are playing in Los Angeles.  Tonight I went to see The Bad Plus at the Mint.  The Bad Plus are my heroes and have been an inspiration to On Ensemble’s music.  They are fearless musicians who are constantly pushing the boundries of what a jazz trio can be.  Sometimes they sound like jazz sometimes they sound like rock sometimes they sound out of this world but they always manage to make their diverse influences come together in a way that seems natural.  Their new album features vocalist Wendy Lewis and their second set featured all vocal tunes with versios of everything from Nirvana’s “Lithium” to Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” to U2’s “New Year’s Day”.  The vocalist sounded amazing and fit with the band perfectly.  They magically transformed from The Bad Plus cutting edge jazz trio to The Bad Plus alt rock super group.

Tomorrow night I’m going to see Pharoah Sanders play at the Jazz Bakery.  Pharoah Sanders is a saxophone legend and if you are in Los Angeles and read this in time you should definitely check him out!

I had recording session today with Hiroshima for the band’s new album.  For those of you that don’t know when I’m not touring with On Ensemble or spending time in Java I’m usually playing with Hiroshima.  I’ve been with the band for about five years and played on the last two albums “Obon” and “Little Tokyo“.

The new album is going to feature greatest hits from the band’s earlier albums and many songs that are standards in our live set.  I don’t want to give away too much but the new Hiroshima album is going to be really great and a real treat for die hard fans of the band.  For fans that have followed the band from the late 70’s there are songs from “Hiroshima” and “Odori” and for those new to the band it’ll be a chance to rediscover some great music.

We’ve moved the official release date back for our new album to 5/5/09.  If you’re anxious to get your hands on a pre-release copy we’ll be selling them at our performances before the release date.  The album will be available online on 5/5/09.